Naim | StuartMcCallum (g, sampler), Iain Dixon (woodwinds), Rachel Gladwin (hp), Ira Coleman (b), Robin Mullarkey (b), Dave Walsh (d), and Chris Manis (perc). Rec. date not stated

Mancunian guitarist Stuart McCallum’s third solo album finds him building on and expanding the aesthetic he’s helped to develop as part of Jason Swinscoe’s longstanding trip-hop outfit, The Cinematic Orchestra. That means lush, orchestral samples, languid grooves and a sophisticated facility for channelling the chill-out properties of cosmo-spiritual jazz masterpieces such as Alice Coltrane’s Journey in Satchidananda through a secular, 21st century familiarity with electronica and dance music. Like Swinscoe, McCallum seems to have an instinctive feel for epic arrangements with an expansive sweep – following a lineage that runs from David Axelrod’s iconic late 1960s, Blake-inspired suites, Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience, through Jean-Claude Vannier’s definitive contributions to Serge Gainsbourg’s Histoire de Melody Nelson, and right up to DJ Shadow’s update on the whole idea from the mid-1990s onwards. But McCallum brings a novel twist to the concept, by grounding it subtly yet very firmly in his geographical roots – that is, the north west of England. Tracks like ‘Lament for Levenshulme’ (named after an inner-city area of Manchester) conjure the city’s iron-grey skies and rain-soaked, redbrick terraces – as seen through the steam of a cosy cup of hot, sweet tea – with a kind of rueful melancholy. Throughout, there’s a modest avoidance of showy solos, though there’s little doubt McCallum could scorch them out if he was inclined to do so. Instead, he pursues a patient preoccupation with texture, shading and colour – and pretty much invents Mancuniana in the process.

– Daniel Spicer

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